Heat pump setting in SW Florida

[sjoshi]

Hi all, family (2 to 3 of us) like to swim for 30 mins or so everyday, so looking to have desired temp (say 82 deg) for a couple hour stretch - say 5 pm to 7 pm every day. Have a 110K BTU Pentair heat pump. Pool is an awkward shape with an integrated spa, so not easy to cover. I am thinking of getting some floating solar covers (5 ft circles) as a test. Peak pool temp these days is in the 70s or low 80 around noon according to Pentair Easytouch but drops off after that. It is below 70 deg when sun comes up.

Whats the best way to operate the heat pump to achieve the desired temp (say 82 deg) for the couple hours every evening?

I currently run low rpm for 7 hours from 9 am to 4 pm and high rpm from 4 pm to 6 pm. How should I change the rpm settings based on use of the heat pump?

thanks in advance for your help!

 

[ajw22]

Will your low rpm pump setting engage the pressure switch in the HP and allow it to generate?

Any flow above the minimum required to engage the pressure switch will work. Typically a flow of 30-40 GPM is optimal for a HP.

You need to see how many hours it takes to get your pool up to swimming temperature.

 

[sjoshi]

Will your low rpm pump setting engage the pressure switch in the HP and allow it to generate?

Any flow above the minimum required to engage the pressure switch will work. Typically a flow of 30-40 GPM is optimal for a HP.

You need to see how many hours it takes to get your pool up to swimming temperature.

TY! Yes seems to be working fine with 30 GPM. Just trying to learn common practice to handle the "shoulder season" - say Oct, Nov vs. cold season "Dec, Jan, maybe Feb", then shoulder season again and then summer. One member of the family has back issues and really benefits from using the pool regularly... so I am focusing on how to do that. Set it and forget it, or heat it up to get to the swimming temp in the evening, shut off and let it cool down overnight.

It looks like a pool cover is not a practical option for me given the irregular pool shape and integrated spa... I am going to try using BOTH the solar pool circles and liquid cover to give us as much benefit as possible. The spa section should warm up nicely under a circle and help the pool a bit (I am hoping).

 

[ajw22]

Set it and forget it, or heat it up to get to the swimming temp in the evening, shut off and let it cool down overnight.

Heat Pumps are not good at heating on demand since they put out a smaller amount of heat then a gas heater. And the amount of heat a HP puts out declines as the air temperature gets colder.

If you try and heat on demand you will need to manage when you turn on the HP based on the water temperature and how effective you estimate the HP will be that day in heating the pool.

It will be easier to just keep your pump and HP running 24/7 to maintain the desired water temperature although that will use Treo electricity.

So its your choice between managing the HP runtime and your electric bill or just letting it run.

 

[sjoshi]

TY! I am going to play with it then for a week at a time and compare both approaches. If I leave it running 7 x 24, will need to re-plan the SWCG. I am using a Pentair IC40 in a 15,000 gallon pool, which seemed a smart idea at the time, but with how we maintain the pool, even 15% setting is a bit much for a 8 / 9 hour run. So i will need to see if a setting like 4% on the SWCG produces consistent outcome. And even that might be a bit much with solar cover circles and liquid pool cover in the mix… lets see.

 

[sjoshi]

Looks like the Pentair Ultra Temp heat pump is set to trigger valve at minimum 30 gpm (or 29.5 if the Easytouch measurement was right). So will need to run at 30 gpm.. still not bad. Need to just test FC in a few days to make sure at really low settings like 5% output, the chlorine generator output is predictable.